On Tuesday 21st March, Cumbria Branch Secretary, Graham Frost attended a meeting at the Houses of Parliament to take the concerns of Cumbria’s school leaders to Schools Minister, Nick Gibb and four of Cumbria’s MPs.
Tim Farron, MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale and leader of the Liberal Democrats organised the meeting which was also attended by Cumbrian MPs Sue Hayman (Workington), John Woodcock (Barrow and Furness), and Rory Stewart (Penrith and the Borders). At the start of the meeting it was acknowledged by Mr Farron and Mr Frost that achieving a truly fair distribution of funding to all schools is an incredibly problematic, though worthy aim, but that the funding formula is proving a distraction from the real issue – that of real term funding cuts of £3 billion nationally.
Although Cumbria’s schools are set to fair better than many other parts of the country through the redistribution resulting from fairer funding as proposed in the National Funding Formula, calculations based on government figures (National Audit Office) indicate that any benefits are cancelled out by additional costs, particularly increased pension and NI contibutions, along with having to pay for services such as attendance officer work, meeting health and safety and safeguarding requirements, special educational needs support services, elements of staff training – all formerly funded via the separate Educational Services Grant.
Mr Frost made representations on behalf of school leaders from across Cumbria, revealing that many are already being forced to make drastic cuts due to the increasing cost pressures. These cost cutting measures include:
- reducing staff by not replacing them when they leave or contracts end;
- increasing the teaching commitment of heads, deputies and other school leaders;
- staff restructuring and redundancies;
- reducing the number of support staff such as midday supervisors;
- increasing class sizes;
- withdrawing pupils with SEN (Special Educational Needs) from several classes to work with a single teaching assistant instead of having them integrated within class;
- significantly reducing professional training opportunities for staff;
- discontinuing curriculum provision such as music or drama lessons;
- considering reducing the number of subjects offered, such as technical or vocational training;
- not renewing or replacing equipment such as IT/computers or book stock;
- no longer having access to a school nurse service;
- shelving plans for urgent building maintenance;
- relying more heavily on PTAs to raise money for essentials such as books, drama performances, etc.
Nick Gibb restated his belief that schools can find further efficiencies. Mr Frost challenged him to state how he proposes that schools should achieve this, given that the reports from schools from across Cumbria, many of which are already operating at minimum staffing levels make for alarming reading. Mr Frost will be writing to Mr Gibb for clarification on this point.
Reflecting on the meeting, Mr Frost stated,
“There is a fundamental disconnect between what most educational researchers, heads and parents I speak to consider to constitute a good education and that which would be possible with the level of cuts to education we are now seeing. While it was positive to have cross party concern expressed in a frank discussion about the financial pressures faced by Cumbria’s schools, the meeting did not provide any hope that the real term cuts of £3 billion to government spending on education will be averted. I am deeply concerned. Parents will have serious questions about how the cuts will impact on their children’s education in the immediate future.”
NAHT Cumbria 